Chronic headaches and migraines affect 1 in 4 adults in Delhi-NCR, study finds

Headaches are consuming a significant share of daily life for adults in Delhi and neighbouring cities, with a new study estimating that people in the region spend 5.5% of their waking hours with head pain. The research, published in the Journal of Headache and Pain, found that one in four adults in Delhi-NCR — about 26% of the population — would benefit from professional headache care.

The study, led by Debashish Chowdhury of GB Pant Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research and Anand Krishnan of AIIMS, New Delhi, surveyed 2,066 adults aged 18–65 years from randomly selected households. It found that 68% of adults reported at least one headache episode in the previous year, with those affected losing nearly 10% of their time to moderate pain.

Chronic headaches carry heaviest burden

Among headache types, chronic headaches — often related to medication overuse — were found to have the highest impact, accounting for more than half of the total lost time (3.1%). Migraines, present in 26% of adults, contributed to 2% of the time loss, while tension-type headaches, despite affecting 34% of the population, led to only 0.5% of time lost.

"While migraines are more disabling than tension headaches, it is the chronic, medication-related headaches that truly erode quality of life. This calls for better awareness, diagnosis, and management," the authors stated.

The study also found a gender gap in headache impact: women lost more time than men to both migraines (8.7% vs 6%) and tension-type headaches (2% vs 1%).

Pain severity followed a similar pattern. People with chronic or medication-overuse headaches rated their pain at 2.5 on a 3-point scale, compared with 2.1 for migraine and 1.4 for tension headaches. These higher pain levels resulted in greater disruption of household duties, social activities, and overall quality of life, though the effect on paid work was less pronounced.

Using disability weights from the Global Burden of Disease study, the researchers estimated that migraine alone accounted for 3.6% of individual health loss. However, people suffering from chronic headaches were the most willing to pay for relief, highlighting their disproportionate burden.

The study concludes that headache disorders in northern India are both highly prevalent and significantly disruptive to everyday life. The findings are consistent with earlier research from Karnataka, where chronic headaches were also found to have a more profound impact than migraines or tension-type headaches.


(With inputs from TOI)